Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA or their respective creators.
11. In the Land of the Echidnas
"Ready to die, horse thief?" said Chama, kicking open the oubliette's wooden grate.
Huddled at the bottom of the narrow pit, Bejucal peered up at the looming blue echidna.
"Nothing to say?" said Chama, "How dignified."
Bejucal moaned as he was hauled out of the ground by his plaited mauve quills. They were matted with dirt after almost two days in the oubliette. Sadly, being in the open air brought no relief.
The gatehouse's courtyard was riddled with reminders of his imminent fate: the blade at Chama's hip; the chopping block over by the far wall; the rack of skulls — mostly those of executed horse thieves — ready to be hung on the fences of the stables' paddocks.
The teenager slumped to his knees and broke down. He hadn't taken that horse to run away and join one of the prairie clans. He'd merely wanted a taste of what the Reavers got to experience every day. Just a fleeting break from the tedium of tending crops on Laputa's floating gardens.
"Don't be ashamed," said Chama, "You all break in the end."
The blue echidna started across the courtyard, dragging the sniveling Bejucal behind her.
"Reaver!"
Chama stopped and turned her head. A stout purple echidna in a geometrically-patterned sarong was striding her way, flanked by two spear-toting echidnas. They wore chainmail tunics like hers.
"Gatekeeper?" she said, head twitching in acknowledgement.
"Where are you taking that child, Reaver?" demanded Machupicchu, Gatekeeper of Laputa.
"Horse thief, Gatekeeper," said the blue echidna, motioning towards the chopping block.
The stout echidna sized up the sobbing Bejucal. His eyes narrowed.
"This one belongs with Uxbenka," he said, "Take him, Cal—"
"His clan chose death, Gatekeeper," Chama cut in
"His clan are welcome to their preference, but King Iximche's orders are clear. He goes to the mines. Take him, Calakmul."
"Yes, Gatekeeper," grunted one of the chainmailed echidnas.
Stepping forward, he grabbed a handful of Bejucal's plaited quills and wrested him away from Chama.
"Th-thank you, Gatekeeper," sniffled Bejucal as he was led away.
"Don't speak too soon, lad," said Machupicchu sternly.
He and Chama watched the teenager stumble off towards his new life digging up emeralds on Mount Muzo. After a time, Machupicchu noted a sour look on the blue echidna's face.
"A complaint, Reaver?"
"His clan's will should be respected, Gatekeeper," muttered Chama, adjusting the shortsword at her hip.
"Not at the expense of your king's."
"Gatekeeper!" yelled a sentry up on the gatehouse's battlements, "Come look!"
Machupicchu frowned.
"When did you last hear Yaxha sound so excited?" he mused, "Come, Reaver."
The duo promptly made their way up onto the mudbrick wall. Looking westwards across the verdant prairie, the cause of the sentry's excitement became clear.
"A chariot?" gasped Chama.
Pulled by two black horses, the vehicle — a rare sight on the largely roadless prairies — was hurtling towards Laputa. Machupicchu wasn't half so interested in the chariot as the two echidnas riding ahead of it. A smile played on his lips.
"Yaxha, open the gate," he commanded, "Chama, join me."
Hooking his thumbs in the broad sash holding up his sarong — he was too old (or too fat, according to his wife Huayna) for that newfangled chainmail — Machupicchu made his way off the wall and out through the arched gateway.
As he strode out, one of the outriders' horses appeared to almost stumble. The Gatekeeper guffawed.
"What's funny?" asked Chama dourly.
"I appear to have been recognized," replied Machupicchu, watching the rider who'd stumbled pull ahead of their companions.
At a certain point, Knuxahuatl halted his palomino stallion, jumped down, threw off his iron helmet, and ran headlong into Machupicchu's open arms.
"Welcome home, lad," said the Gatekeeper, slapping the backplate of the warrior's iron cuirass.
"How did you know—"
"I remember every horse that leaves through my gates, lad. You know that."
"An Agnian?" remarked Chama, spying the helmetless Blaze aboard the approaching chariot.
"Is that where you came by all this finery, lad?" asked Machupicchu, patting the pauldrons on Knuxahuatl's shoulders, "Living with the fire dancers?"
"Not Agnia, Gatekeeper…Galderia."
"The flittermouse?!" blurted Chama.
"Enough, Reaver!" snapped Machupicchu, shooting a glare over his shoulder, "Go see to the Agnian's horses."
With a grudging nod, the blue echidna stalked off.
"I can explain—"
"No need, lad," said the Gatekeeper, ruffling Knuxahuatl's plaits, "We can scarcely imagine how it must have been for you, hearing the news from so far away."
The rubicund echidna nodded meekly.
"Now, tell me, how did the shy lad I couldn't convince to take the Reaver trials wind up in the company of Agnians and Erinians?"
"I…we bring tidings from Queen Rouge," replied Knuxahuatl.
"Of course you do," said Machupicchu, with a hint of a sigh, "I shall speak to Tazumal. An audience should be possible."
"Do you really think so?"
"Lucky for you, lad, I'm not sure anyone on the Council's set eyes on a real-life Agnian before."
The Gatekeeper cocked his head to one side, exchanging nods with Xhade over Knuxahuatl's shoulder. The coral-furred echidna was leading Knuxahuatl's horse alongside her own white mare. Blaze walked beside her, carrying her fellow emissary's discarded helmet.
Looking round, Knuxahuatl fought the urge to grimace. He knew that look on Xhade's face well. Her nerves were fighting a pitched battle with giddy excitement, and he knew why. Merchants' third-hand stories about the cats of Agnia had always fascinated her. Now, she suddenly had a member of their royal clan to show off.
"Gatekeeper?" said Xhade.
"Welcome home, Reaver," said Machupicchu, "A successful patrol, I see."
"Uh, yes, Gatekeeper. Thank you. I—"
"Is all well with Komchen's foals?"
"Yes, Gatekeeper. I—"
"Good," said Machupicchu, turning back to Knuxahuatl, "Come, lad, your aunt will want to see you."
With that, the stout purple echidna turned heel and started back towards Laputa's gates. The miffed Xhade promptly went in pursuit of her stolen thunder, taking both horses with her. The emissaries lingered.
"Here, my lord," said Blaze, handing Knuxahuatl his helmet.
The echidna nodded his thanks.
"What are we waiting for?"
The warriors looked over their shoulders. Shadow was limping towards them. The prairie's uneven terrain, coupled with the chariot's wholly inadequate suspension, had exactly a heavy toll on the hedgehog's body.
"You," said Knuxahuatl tersely, starting towards the gates.
"What of the chariot, my lord?" asked Blaze.
"It will be fine where it is."
Machupicchu met the trio inside the gates. He led them across the gatehouse's courtyard and through a second mudbrick archway, out into Laputa's marketplace. Given the lowness of the sun in the westerly sky, the crowds had gone for the day. The smell of fish had not.
At stalls scattered about the unpaved plaza, platypuses tended racks of hanging fish caught from the lake at the heart of the settlement. Beyond the pungent market lay a wide road leading all the way to the lakeshore. To Knuxahuatl's confusion, Machupicchu veered off to the left, down a narrow alley nestled between two empty stalls.
The emissaries followed the Gatekeeper along the labyrinthine path, winding their way between the tall mudbrick walls of the compounds in which Laputa's echidna clans dwelt. Knuxahuatl found himself wishing they had waited for Xhade. His mental list of questions lengthened by the second.
When he first heard of the coup against King Pachacamac, he hadn't feared for his aunt Ayahuasca like he had Princess Tikal. She was only the Court Scryer, after all, responsible for gazing into the Master Emerald to try and discern the course of events to come. If all was well with her, she wouldn't be living so far from the lake.
"These are beautiful," mused Blaze, dawdling to brush a gauntleted hand beneath a painted mural of a serpentine blue monster.
"Is it, my princess?" said Shadow.
Blaze blinked and glanced at the hedgehog. He was looking at a point further along the wall. She tracked his gaze to a line-drawing of two figures. One was running the other through with a spear. The impaled figure's ears, muzzle and tail were unmistakably canine.
"A wolf?" said the cat.
"Lenca, get down from there!"
Just then, a dingo pup came scrambling over the top of the painted wall. Blaze lunged to catch the falling youngster. The dripping-wet dingo gawked wide-eyed at the cat, then wriggled out of her hands and ducked between her legs.
"That's far enough, Lenca," said Xhade, catching the pup by her scruff.
The transfixed Shadow winced in surprise as Machupicchu chuckled heartily behind him.
"What did poor Tikal do to deserve you, hmm?" said the Gatekeeper, weaving his way between the emissaries to ruffle the pouting pup's soggy ears.
"Tikal?" breathed Knuxahuatl, "She…she's alive?"
Machupicchu's expression darkened as he looked over his shoulder.
"See for yourself, lad."
Knuxahuatl turned around. Behind him stood an ochre-furred adolescent echidna in a green diamond-patterned sarong. He fell to his knees.
"My princess," he said, bowing his head.
Shadow watched the youngster recoil. Xhade marched over and wrenched Knuxahuatl to his feet.
"Stop that!" she hissed, steering him down the path and out of sight.
Machupicchu approached Tikal and handed her Lenca. "Take these visitors to your mistress, child."
"Yes, Gatekeeper," said Tikal.
She bowed her head as the stout purple echidna excused himself. Once he was gone, she turned her bright blue eyes on Blaze.
"Forgive me, my lady, but are you, by any chance…from Agnia?"
The cat tilted her head, then nodded. "I am."
Tikal inhaled sharply as her face lit up.
"Is it true your people can tell the future by looking at fire?"
Shadow suppressed a groan.
жЖж
On the other side of the painted wall, Knuxahuatl shook himself free of Xhade's armlock and rounded on her.
"What was that for?" he growled, placing a hand on one of the flanged maces at his hip.
"You were scaring her!"
"I thought she was dead—"
"Call her princess in front of the wrong echidna and she will be," Xhade cut in, "Do you think learning to be a slave's been easy for her?"
"She…she was always humble—"
"Easy to be humble when most of Arkadia once bowed you."
Knuxahuatl slowly let go of his mace.
"How did she survive?" he asked.
Xhade sighed.
"I got sentimental," she muttered.
Knuxahuatl scowled. Xhade snorted, gazing at the ground.
"That's how King Iximche put it, anyway."
Knuxahuatl's scowl became a frown. "Is he…saving her?"
Xhade blenched.
"For what? She's old enough for…he's never given a damn about clan bloodlines."
The rubicund echidna nodded solemnly. Few echidnas knew Iximche like Xhade did. After they were both orphaned during King Pachacamac's catastrophic First Dingo War, she'd been taken in by the then-Minekeeper. He'd gone to live with Machupicchu's clan.
"You didn't choose to stay a Reaver, did you?" asked Knuxahuatl.
Xhade shook her head.
"He said…"
She sighed, lifting her head.
"The king said if he spared Tikal…I would become a stranger to him."
She stooped forward suddenly, practically headbutting his breastplate.
"I couldn't let him hurt her," she whispered hoarsely, choking up, "I just couldn't."
Knuxahuatl dropped his helmet and unbuckled his vambraces, wrapping his freed arms around Xhade. His fur snagged on her chainmail tunic. All the same, he held her close as her hunched shoulders began to quake.
жЖж
A woolly white alpaca brayed as it gently headbutted the matronly echidna's broad hip.
"Stop that, Inti!" laughed Ayahuasca, shoving the insistent animal away, "Go eat your hay."
She dipped a hand into the pot under her arm and cast the grain in a wide arc over the idle turkeys. She and her livestock were standing inside a wicker-fenced enclosure in the middle of her compound's courtyard. It was ringed by six thatched mudbrick huts of varying sizes. Only two showed outward signs of use.
Just then, Inti lunged towards the ground at Ayahuasca's feet, vying with the turkeys for the grain spilling out of her dropped pot. The echidna wasn't the least bit concerned, not now she'd just laid eyes on the nephew she'd given up for dead.
"Knuxahuatl?" she breathed.
Her plaited brown quills, laden with large wooden beads, rattled as she staggered to the wicker fence.
"Go," whispered Xhade, nudging the partially-armored Knuxahuatl towards the enclosure.
Haltingly, he left his friend's side, shuffling forwards.
"H-hello, aunt," he said, struggling to maintain eye contact amid welling tears.
Tears were already cascading down Ayahuasca's cheeks, dripping onto her breasts. She sniffled uselessly. There was no stemming this tide.
"Mistress! Mistress! There's someone you must meet!"
The beaming Tikal came running into the courtyard, pulling the stumbling Blaze along by the hand. Behind them walked Shadow. The dingo pup Lenca was perched on the hedgehog's right shoulder, raising and lowering his helmet's visor.
"Later, Tikal," said Ayahuasca smilingly, wiping her eyes, "Light a fire, my girl. There is so very much to talk about."